Page 51 of Suddenly Yours

“With her,” I interjected.

His eyes narrowed slightly and he looked annoyed.

“The point is, she’s offering far less than what it’s worth.”

I kept my face neutral, even as my stomach tightened. “You mean she wants a fair valuation.”

“She wants a discounted one,” he snapped as irritation flashed in his eyes. Then he softened, lowering his voice as if trying to convince me that the next thing he said was the truth. “Melissa, sweetheart, this is millions we’re talking about. Millions,” he said more slowly. “The business that I built.”

“With her help,” I interjected dryly again.

“The business that funded your upbringing,” he continued as if he hadn’t heard me.

The words landed exactly where he meant them to. Guilt. Obligation. I felt it flare, then tamped it down quickly.

“You didn’t come here to talk to me about business,” I said quietly. “You came here to ask me to talk to Mom for you.”

His eyes sharpened. “I came here because she listens to you.”

I almost laughed at that. Elizabeth Sharpe listened to no one unless she wanted to. Even now, with the changes that she’d made since the split, she was still her own woman. I suppose I took after her in that way. Still, I could see where this was headed. While my father was out golfing and hobnobbing every day, my mother had buckled down and was working the business she and my brother now ran together. If it wasn’t for my brother, I doubted Sharper Image Dance Company would still be worth millions.

“You want me to convince her to offer you more,” I said dryly.

He nodded once. “It’s only fair.”

“Fair to whom?” I asked, my voice calm even as something cold settled in my chest. “You cheated on her for years, Dad. You are the one who left her. You broke your promises to her. Besides, everyone knows that you haven’t worked a day at Sharper Image for years. Max is the only reason the family business didn’t go upside down a few years back. Now you want me to negotiate a bigger payout for you? Why do you think you deserve it?”

His jaw tightened. “That’s between your mother and me.”

“No,” I said softly. “You made it my business the second you showed up here and asked me to help.”

He studied me for a long moment, his gaze drifting over the bakery, the white tables, the flower boxes that Cade had built for me outside the windows. Something like disapproval flickered behind his eyes. He really hated this place. Hated me. Hated what I’d built for myself.

“This,” he said slowly, “isn’t what I imagined for you.”

I forced a smile, but I knew that it didn’t reach my eyes. “I know,” I said calmly.

“You’re wasting your talent,” he went on. “Our connections. You could be doing so much more than baking brownies for tourists.”

“And locals,” I corrected with a smile. “And I love every moment of it.”

He waved me away. “Be realistic. This”—he gestured broadly—“is just another phase. Like when you wanted to play basketball or cheerlead.”

A familiar ache bloomed in my chest. I’d spent my whole life hearing that tone.

“And Levi?” he added casually, like an afterthought.

I stiffened. “What about him?”

Thankfully, I hadn’t heard from or seen Levi in two days. He’d shown up one morning and demanded I talk to him, but then a line of high school students came in and he disappeared while I was dealing with donut orders. He hadn’t been back since.

“It would be smart,” he continued, leaning forward slightly, “to reconsider that relationship. His family has substantial wealth. Influence. Stability. You drop this bakery idea, get back together with him, and doors will open. For all of us.”

There it was. The real reason he’d come all this way.

Was he plotting some business deal with Levi or his family? Was he trying to sell me off like livestock to Levi? I didn’t know and, to be honest, I didn’t care. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least.

I stared at him, really looked at him, and something shifted. I saw not the powerful man who’d once filled entire rooms with his presence but someone grasping at straws. Someone afraid of losing control, of losing everything.